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Windows 11 Enterprise - Storage Spaces cannot reclaim space from deleted files

ChadRick587 1 Reputation point
2022-09-22T12:29:45.11+00:00

I have Win 11 Enterprise, using Storage Spaces for 2 pools.
One is made up of SAS HDDs formatted as ReFS, the other is made up of SSDs formatted as NTFS.
Both are sets of drives are connected via a SAS/SATA/NVMe(tri mode) HBA.
The issue exists on both, and symptoms are the same, so I'll just chronicle on below:

Both pools have been in use over multiple years.
I only realized I was low on space when attempting to transfer files to one of the drives and got an error that there was no space available.
Looking at Windows Explorer though, it shows 2.9 TB free of 5.99TB total.
Thought it was odd, so I transferred some stuff off, did a reboot, ran check disk, ran optimize in Storage Spaces, ran defrag (on the one that could be), ran optimize in Win Explorer, trimmed SSDs... nothing. Nothing changed.
Optimize status shows both over 92% efficiency and no errors.

I've even gone so far as to move all of the data off one of the pools (at a time) and the storage stats still showed the same amount of space in use.

Most of the posts I have found on this topic involve a server OS and require software tools limited to server OS in order to diagnose/repair.
I did find this one which references a desktop OS, and followed the recommended steps here; however that did not change anything.

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/de22e680-5202-4193-b13a-81f3e39058a0/storage-spaces-pool-does-not-reclaim-free-space-from-deleted-files?forum=win10itprogeneral

What am I to try next?

Windows 11
Windows 11
A Microsoft operating system designed for productivity, creativity, and ease of use.
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  1. Xu Gu (Shanghai Wicresoft Co,.Ltd.) 501 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor
    2022-09-29T06:54:29.987+00:00

    Hi ChadEick,

    Have you enabled the VSS service? If VSS is enabled, the following conditions will appear:
    The space used by the shadow copies will not be reclaimed until it has cycled through it allocated space.
    e.g. previous versions will remain even after you have deleted the original files until they are purged - that can take weeks depending on your configuration.
    If you disable then re-enable Shadow Copies that will purge that storage - although you will loose any previous.

    Best Regards,
    Xu Gu

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